Tura, May 14: A female wild elephant that was part of a herd that had been roaming through the Garo Hills region was killed last night, May 13, after it came in contact with a low hanging overhead electrical wire near the village of Garobadha in South West Garo Hills (SWGH).
The elephant was part of a herd that had been moving through the Wakhagre – Doldegre area for several weeks. The area falls under the elephant corridor with the villagers informing that the pachyderms had moved towards the Garobadha – Selsella road in recent times.
The incident apparently took place when the pachyderm was trying to cross the village of Chokingre on the same road. The low hanging wire that the pachyderm touched was a high tension wire (11KV) leading to its electrocution. A post mortem has been conducted by the Wildlife department.
Following the incident, the DFO of Wildlife, Rupankar Marak stated that he has written to the EE of MePDCL to urgently conduct a thorough inspection of 11 KV lines in the district.
“Any sagging lines must be rectified as early as possible to eliminate the risk of elephants and other wild animals that roam the region,” informed the DFO.
Electrocution of wild animals, including elephants, have become a common sight in the region mainly due to the laxity shown by the power department, which even after information of low hanging wires, takes ages to rectify the situation.
